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“Lingerie.”
“My favorite kind. I’ll have to check it out.”
Shelby reached into her purse and pulled out an invitation to the grand-opening party. “We’re having a little party to celebrate.”
“I’ll be there,” Roxy said. She glanced over at Hayden.
“I’ll look into that matter we discussed,” Hayden said.
“I’d appreciate it, Hay. I know he could be harmless, but something about him made me leery.”
“No problem, Roxy. I’ll let you know what I find out.”
When Roxy left them, he turned his attention to Shelby. She felt his hot gaze on her, taking in the length of her bare arms, lingering on the scooped curve of her neckline and then skimming down to her feet in the tiny sandals.
She crossed her arms around her waist but then realized she was projecting her vulnerability for him to see. And Hayden was intimately acquainted with some of her weaknesses. She didn’t need for him to know that he rattled her.
“Thanks for joining me for dinner,” he said. “Can you walk in those shoes?”
“Yes. They’re surprisingly comfortable. What were you two discussing?”
“Jealous?”
She tipped her head to the side. “Yes, I think I am.”
He laughed. “Don’t be. It was only business.”
“She didn’t seem like just an employee.”
“You’re right, she’s not.”
“Is she your lover?” Shelby asked, though she hadn’t gotten that intimate vibe from the two of them.
“No. More like a kid sister. I really try to make the Chimera like a family. So many people come here alone and…”
Hayden knew loneliness. It was one of the things they’d both had in common. Something Shelby hadn’t had to lie about when they’d been dating long ago. Her mother had always been working, just like Hayden’s dad. It had given them some unexpected common ground.
She tucked her hand under his elbow. “You’re a nice man.”
“Sometimes.”
He escorted her out of the main lobby to the escalators that led to the mezzanine level. “Where are we going?” she asked.
“To the stars.”
“We’re going flying?” This was the man who’d swept her off her feet years ago. He’d offered her the fantasy of romance and she’d lapped it up without thinking of the consequences. Like those sunset airplane rides in his Cessna. He’d taken things that she’d never imagined she would do and made them happen.
“Not tonight. Last year I had a planetarium built. Well, Deacon and I did.”
“Who’s Deacon?”
“Deacon Prescott. He owns the Golden Dream. We work together on a lot of projects. I thought we’d have a drink under the stars before dinner.”
“Isn’t that going to be a little awkward with all your other guests?”
“No, Shel. I closed down one of the theaters. I’d rather my guests stay in the casino anyway.”
“More money to be made that way, right?”
“You know that money makes the world go round.”
“Yes, I do.”
He slipped his hand under her elbow and led her through the mezzanine. He was stopped twice by his employees with questions that he had to take. Owning Bêcheur d’Or made her understand how demanding running any kind of business could be. She’d checked in with Paige early this morning and had a conference call scheduled for tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. with the builders of the next boutique in Washington, D.C.
Finally they entered a long corridor that was sparsely occupied. The piped-in music wasn’t some generic Muzak but the sophisticated beauty of Wynton Marsalis playing the trumpet.
Shelby closed her eyes and wondered for a moment if this might have been her life had she made a different choice all those years ago.
“Vegas has changed in the last ten years,” she said, though she suspected it was the changes inside herself that made the city seem so different.
“Yes, it has.”
“Did you have anything to do with that?” she asked to fill the silence and keep her mind off the uncomfortable feeling that maybe she hadn’t changed as much as she wished she had.
“What do you think?” he asked.
She paused and tilted her head to the side to study him. She knew without a doubt that he was on the image committee and the development committees for the Strip. Hayden wouldn’t chance leaving any detail that could affect his business to someone else.
“Yes. I like how sophisticated your hotel is, but that doesn’t change the fact that one block over, the area is still a little sleazy.”
“Everyone is looking for something different in Vegas and we like to say we can accommodate any type of poison.”
“What about me?” she asked, wondering what he thought about her was dangerous. What you think of yourself is the only thing that matters. But she’d never held herself in high regard.
“What about you?” he asked. He pulled her into a small alcove.
She felt secluded from the rest of the world with the wall at her back and Hayden blocking her front. He stared down at her with an unreadable expression and she shivered deep inside, realizing how much of life she’d been missing since she left this man.
Because she’d never been able to really trust a man enough to let him affect her the way Hayden always had. She swallowed against a dry throat and said, “What’s my poison?”
“Only you can say. I suspect that it’s a mix between the gritty reality of where you grew up and this.” He gestured to the ornately decorated hallway.
“What about you?” she asked, not willing to dwell too much on how gritty her reality had been.
“I’m the center ring, master of ceremonies. Making sure that whatever reason—fantasy or desire—you brought with you gets fulfilled.”
There was a husky sensuality in his voice. She looked up at Hayden, into his deep blue eyes, and realized that he wasn’t all show and both of them knew it.
Hayden liked the feel of Shelby’s arm under his hand. The lobby of the planetarium was actually between his hotel and Deacon’s Golden Dream. They’d funded a wing together last year that would enhance the experience for their guests. He also had a traveling Impressionists exhibit down the hall in the art museum.
Most people came to Vegas for a reason and Shelby’s was probably just profit motivated, but his gut said there was more. He wanted to know more about those reasons.
Hayden had asked the head chef, Louis Patin, to send up champagne and strawberries for a predinner snack, and one of the hostesses handed a wicker basket to Hayden as they entered. He took Shelby up the back stairs into one of the VIP rooms.
“Give me a minute to get everything set up,” he said.
“Can I help?” she asked.
“No. I’ve got it.” He gestured toward the plush velvet covered seats positioned in front of the low wall. “Enjoy the show.”
She sat down and Hayden watched her carefully cross her legs, then shift to find a more comfortable position on the chair. The slit in her skirt widened and he realized it was a wraparound type and that only one or two buttons were keeping that silky fabric in place.
He caught a glimpse of her thigh before she pulled the fabric over her leg, covering it up. He sighed and then turned to open their champagne.
She was watching him as he poured the liquid and handed her a glass. The material from her skirt slipped free of her fingers. It slid down her leg. The woman had great legs.
“Why are we playing these games, Hayden?” she asked, running her fingers along the length of exposed skin. The stars had begun to appear on the planetarium ceiling, and soft classical music began to play.
“I wasn’t aware we were. We both like to flirt,” he said, lightly touching his glass to hers then moving back to regard her. Her flesh looked so soft and tempting in the muted lighting in the room. His own fingers tingled with the need to caress her. He clenched them and sipped the bubbling drink.
“I thought you were the master of ceremonies. Flirting is where we both try to pretend that we’re not still attracted to each other.”
“Is that what you’ve been doing?” he asked. Already his blood was flowing heavy and every nerve in his body said screw talking and take her. She didn’t want the niceties he put on when he was trying to be a gentleman instead of the gambler he essentially was.
“I’ve been trying. And not successfully I might add,” she said, twisting her fingers together in a nervous gesture that made him realize that it might not be real desire that motivated Shelby. It was the waiting. Not knowing which way things were going to fall between them.
“Why?” he asked, needing to know more.
“I can’t figure it out. There’s always been something about you that makes me feel…I don’t know, like I’m about to jump off a cliff. I know that it’s going to be an exhilarating ride but I’m not sure my parachute is going to open in time.”
It was different for him. He’d spent the last ten years protecting his emotions from the women with whom he got involved. It hadn’t even been conscious at first, but the last woman he’d broken up with had said that he was the coldest man she’d ever slept with. White-hot in bed but stone-cold out. And Hayden had realized the truth about himself. The truth that had probably been there the entire time. He couldn’t do things by half measures.
“We agreed to dinner,” he said.
“I know. But I got nervous when I saw you watching me.”
“Wanting you,” he said.
He closed the distance between them and bent down on one knee. Up close he could see the smooth, lightly tanned skin.
“Do you want me to want you that way?”
“Yes,” she said. “Yes, because that gives me something real to cling to.”
He shouldn’t touch her. Not now. Yet he couldn’t help himself. He reached out, scraping one nail along the edge of the material that covered her leg. She shivered, but didn’t pull away.
Her hand fell to his shoulder, holding on to him while he touched her. Stroking her was addictive. Her skin was softer than anything he’d touched in a long time. Her muscles weren’t hardened by hours in the gym, but softer. It was a very feminine thigh.
Taking the fabric in his hand, he drew it up over her leg and uncovered her. She dropped her hand to the top of her thigh, lightly resting it on top of his.
“Sit with me, Hayden. Let’s talk.”
He didn’t ask why. He knew that she wanted that sweet feeling that had always been between them. The real reason he could never forgive Shelby wasn’t so much because of the money she’d taken. It was because of the lesson she’d taught him.
He’d never been the kind of man who had let anyone inside him. Never let anyone see the real man behind the trappings of the spoiled rich-boy facade. But he’d been tempted to let her in and she’d walked away.
“Why’d you do it, Shel?”
She trembled and lifted her hand from his. She pushed away from the chair and walked a few steps from him, looking out over the railing up toward the stars that were playing across the wide ceiling.
He stood but kept the distance between them. When she spoke it was almost too soft for him to hear, but he could make out the words.
“I needed security.”
“That’s it?” he asked, sensing she was hiding something. He knew then that subterfuge was a big part of what was going on here and it had little to do with sex. It was all about who they both were and who they didn’t want the other to see. “Lay it out for me, babe. Because that just sounds like a line.”
“I left because I knew that you were twenty-four-carat solid gold and I was that spray-on stuff they use at fairs that wears off after a few days and leaves a green mark.”
She turned her head away from him. “I wanted to leave before I left a mark on you that you’d have a hard time getting rid of.”
Hayden led Shelby out of the planetarium to a very exclusive restaurant on the fifty-fifth floor of the Chimera. They were led to a private booth that faced the floor-to-ceiling plate-glass windows overlooking Las Vegas. The view was breathtaking. She slid onto the bench and straightened her skirt, looking casual and at ease.
But Hayden wasn’t. Tension rode him like a gambler trying to find a winning streak.
Knowing it tightened the knot in his gut. Why did this woman still have a hold on him? And would revenge be enough to loosen her hold?
His mind warned that logic didn’t play a part in his actions here and now, but he wasn’t really listening with his mind.
The curve of her neck was looking fragile and vulnerable, and he realized that talking about her past was one of her weak points. They’d never really talked about where she’d come from. Perhaps he’d been too shallow to care or too arrogant to think any of that mattered. But now, with the years between them, he realized that her past very much shaped the kind of relationship they’d had.
“Thanks for showing me the stars tonight,” she said.
“You’re welcome. Would you like some more wine?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Let’s get down to business. I believe you said you want to get what you paid for, right?”
When she said it like that he sounded like a bastard. It didn’t matter that they both had been acting true to form in those days. He had been a spoiled young man who’d picked a pretty, shy girl who needed him. He’d liked the way she’d clung to his arm, let him pay for everything and make all the decisions. That wasn’t politically correct but he wasn’t really a PC kind of guy. Despite the money he’d always had, sophistication had always eluded him.
“Yes. That’s what I want.”
He saw in her eyes that she knew it as well. Knew that she was sitting across from a man who wasn’t quite the gentleman he pretended to be.
“You make me feel very feminine when you look at me that way. And I’m not at all used to it. Most men I date are intimidated by me.”
“Why?”
“Who knows,” she said, but bit her bottom lip.
